Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of money laundering
and terrorist financing crimes across the globe. In a bid for authorities to control these
criminal activities both locally and internationally, the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF) 40+9 Recommendations were established as a mechanism for identifying,
combating and controlling money laundering activities. In compliance with
Recommendation 26, each country should establish a Financial Intelligence Unit
(FIU) to serve as a national centre for gathering, analysing and disseminating
suspicious transactions related to money laundering and terrorism finance.
This aim of this research is to examine and investigate the compliance of the principle
FIU within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (known as the Saudi Arabian Financial
Unit) to the International Standards of combating money laundering and terrorism
financing. This research also examines the effectiveness of SAFIU in dealing with
prevention of money laundering and terrorism finance based on the 40+9 FATF
Recommendations. Examining these aims is important as no previous research
exclusively examines the compliance of SAFIU to the International Standards.